A set of photos of luxury buses went viral, implying that they were newly purchased with many praises for the recently formed NPP Government. However, our investigation confirms that these buses were purchased in 2019.
Social Media Posts:
A photo collection of a fleet of luxury buses was shared, accompanied by the text “කියුවා වගේම ගෙනාවා,” which translates to English as “Brought as promised,” implying that these buses were recently purchased, as seen below.
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These posts got a mixture of reactions. While some praised the NPP government for delivering as promised, many had pointed out that these were old images.
Below is another post in the Sinhala language with the same images, suggesting that these buses were recently purchased under the new NPP government.
Fact Check:
As we began investigating the truth behind this claim, our first step was to check whether any reports on the matter had been published in the mainstream media. Our investigation confirmed that no such news had been reported in mainstream media.
A reverse image search of the viral photo led us to a 2019 news article by Ada Derana, featuring the same images and reporting that a collection of luxury buses imported for the SLTB had been released from the Colombo Port.
We found some more news articles featuring the same photo from 2019. Sunday Times | Newsfirst |Daily Mirror
For further clarification and to delve into the current context, we contacted the Coordinating Secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Civil Aviation. He confirmed that these buses were purchased in 2019, and no new luxury buses have been imported to Sri Lanka since then. However, he mentioned that there are plans to import similar buses in the future.
We have previously investigated similar instances of misleading narratives during previous regimes as well, in which images of old or unrelated events were shared, implying they were initiatives by the incumbent government at the time.
Fact Check from 2024 : නව රජයෙන් සුඛෝපඝෝගී Low Floor බස් රථ මගී මගී ප්රවාහනයට යොදාගන්නා අයුරු ? (Photo)
Fact Check from 2021: ඇමතිලාට සැප වාහන ගෙන්වීම නවතා, Low Floor බස් රථ 2000ක් ගෙන්වනවාද?
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Conclusion:
Our investigation revealed that the circulating viral photos of luxury buses date back to 2019, when they were imported to Sri Lanka.
